Navigation of maritime vessels requires accessing and processing numerous independent streams of data. The geographical position of the vessel, weather, wind speed and direction, tide and current speed, the relation of the position of the vessel to charted surface and subsurface features, measured depth of the water beneath the vessel, speed of the vessel, and the position, bearing, and speed of other vessels are just a few examples of the information that must be processed to allow an individual to safely navigate a maritime environment. This requires a vessel operator to use multiple instruments, charts, and visual information to obtain the necessary information describing the dynamic maritime environment.
One navigational aid is a camera system that can be panned and zoomed that provides the user with a real time video stream of a marine environment. However, pan and zoom operations typically require mechanical systems to be actuated, which can be slow to respond to commands. This can cause frustrating delay for the operator.